When he was taunting the rest of the UFC's fighters for not picking up their fair share of the promotional activities, you have to think quite a lot of Conor McGregor's peers were sitting back and waiting for the moment the train derailed. That may or may not be the case but now that the time has come for McGregor to throw his toys out of the pram, you better believe some of those in his shadow have taken the opportunity to point out the fact that you can't just ride roughshod over your contractual obligations.
With the Dubliner's retirement having taken over the headlines, it's easy to forget the fact that UFC 197 is on Saturday with a loaded card featuring a title fight with Jon Jones, and a co-main event which sees the seemingly unbeatable Demetrious Johnson defend his flyweight title against Henry Cejudo.
Both Johnson and Cejudo took time out of their open workouts to have their say on the McGregor situation and Cejudo for one is delighted to see Dana White refuse to bend to the Dubliner's demands.
I think it's good for the UFC. The UFC, they need to start stepping up and doing things like that. If you think you're higher than UFC, if you think you're better than all the other fighters, then maybe you should get pulled. So, I think it's a good discipline.
Johnson similarly had some choice words for McGregor and White's assertion that the Dubliner didn't want to promote his fight saying it's something that all fighters have had to deal with, and that the UFC is better of ridding themselves from fighters who don't want to fall in line:
I've flown from Seattle to LAX, LAX to Sydney, Sydney to Brisbane, Brisbane to Melbourne, Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to LAX, LAX back to Seattle, trained for six weeks, did the same thing, and fought. This is how I make my money. This is how I pay my bills, and ever since the UFC has ever asked me about anything or asked me to do something, I've never turned it down.
Good thing the UFC was like, ‘if you're not going to come to the press conference, we're going to have to pull you.'
However. Both fighters aren't buying the hype that McGregor is retired for good, and both think he'll be back fighting in the Octagon before the end of the year.
He'll be back, man. Not everything that shines is gold. He'll be back.
